Yeah Makita run protection in the battery pack and also on board most tools, this makes them safer and potentially better for hacking, low voltage cut-off makes them a nice choice. It’s why you always see Makita ones on the electric kids toys etc.
The downside is more failures, they will brick themselves with only small discrepancies.
Modern cells aren’t 3.6 to 4.2V, that’s nominal and max, they will often discharge to 2.8 or even 2.5V. A 5 cell pack will be at around 50% charge with 18Voc.